Ethics Newsline®

VARIOUS DATELINES
Again this week, Asia was the focus of several news stories centering on ethics:

• After photos and video of its crackdown on dissenters streamed out to the world, the military government of Myanmar took an action that the New York Times reports was as “simple and uncomplicated as shooting demonstrators in the streets”: It simply “switched off the Internet.” The Times reports that other repressive governments, including those of Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, have restricted Internet access or shut down opposition websites in times of protest or during the run-up to elections. But the nature of evolving technologies makes throwing the switch a less-than-certain action, reports the Times, and the current situation in Myanmar will provide a test of how effectively a repressive government in a location already isolated from the rest of the world can keep a lid on digital communication.
• Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf last week agreed to a “reconciliation ordinance” that drops corruption charges against former premier Benazir Bhutto. CNN reports that the move may clear the way for a power-sharing arrangement with Bhutto, who remains popular in her home nation even while living abroad in exile. Musharraf has seen his support slip away after a failed attempt earlier this year to remove the Supreme Court’s chief justice in a tussle over election rules.
• In Thailand, premier Surayud Chulanont promised to clamp down on the practice of vote buying in order to keep the upcoming elections clean. The December election will be the first since last year’s military coup overthrew former leader Thaksin Shinawatra in the wake of public outrage over a deal that allowed him to sell his business tax-free. The Bangkok Post notes that Thailand has a long history of politicians bribing voters for their ballot, either explicitly or by making promises of future individual benefits, often illicit.